Inzichten Executive Expertsessie Reimagining Your Business: Data & AI in de bestuurskamer

Executive Expert Session — Reimagining Your Business: Data & AI in the Boardroom

We look back on a successful Executive Expert Session Reimagining your business – Data & AI in the Boardroom, which took place on September 15. A teaser with relevant insights, carefully tailored to the needs of executives, board members, supervisory directors, and leaders in digital transformation. What incredible energy and inspiring feedback afterwards. Thank you very much for that.

Ben je geïnspireerd geraakt door deze expertsessie en wil je meer weten of verdiepen? Of heb je de sessie wellicht onverhoopt gemist? Deze sessie was slechts het begin, een voorproefje van het Holistic Leadership Program | Innovation & Transformation with Data and AI dat op 11 december van start gaat.

Leadership Programme

What are the key takeaways from this Executive Expert Session?

AI: Technology and Leadership

AI is not just about technology; it is, above all, about leadership. Boards must now take the lead by placing AI on the strategic agenda, making data central, fostering experimentation, and purposefully transforming their organizations with a sense of urgency. It is crucial to start from the concrete problems you want to solve, not from the technology itself.

Top 11 insights from the session with concrete actions for leaders

1AI is strategic, not just technical

AI is no longer the exclusive responsibility of the CTO, CDO, or IT department. It belongs in the boardroom and requires vision, oversight, and courage.

👉 Action: Put AI as a strategic priority on the board agenda. Don’t just delegate, orchestrate.

2Start small and start now

Waiting for perfect conditions is a trap. Small experiments and MVPs are the foundation of lasting transformation. Embrace an iterative mindset with experimentation and continuous learning, including from “failures”, at the centre.

👉 Action: Launch small-scale AI projects today and work on MVPs. Celebrate successes and scale gradually.

3Operational impact often outweighs flashy front-end AI

The greatest value of AI often lies in operational efficiency, not just in flashy customer-facing tools like AI chatbots. A smart balance is needed. Too often, the focus is on customer-facing efficiency gains, while at least as much (often more) value can be found in back-end efficiency and customer-facing effectiveness.

👉 Action: Focus AI efforts also on impactful back-end applications such as supply chain, processes, and internal services. Generative AI makes it possible to combine efficiency and effectiveness in both front-end and back-end operations.

4Data is the foundation and your differentiator, not AI tools

Without clean, reliable, and accessible data, AI fails. Everyone has access to the same AI tools. Your only true competitive advantage lies in the quality and uniqueness of your data. ROI comes not from more tech investments, but from better use of existing data and combining different types of data.

👉 Action: Prioritize data quality and governance. Start by eliminating ROT data (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial).

5Legacy systems hold you back

Clinging to outdated infrastructure limits agility and innovation potential. Modernization is not optional; it’s a necessity.

👉 Action: Develop a step-by-step plan to break free from legacy systems and invest in flexible, scalable architectures. Break down those silos!

6AI rewards speed and boldness

AI rewards decisiveness. Those who move too slowly fall behind. Make sure your organization acquires the right AI skills and attracts AI talent. Every employee needs at least a basic level of AI literacy (ensure access to professional programs).

👉 Actie: Set a fast and ambitious pace from the top. Embed urgency and continuous experimentation, and learning into your culture.

7Focus; don’t fragment

Scattered AI efforts reduce impact. Targeted choices drive progress.

👉 Actie: Decide where you will and, especially, will not invest in AI. Focus on areas that are strategically relevant and create value. Make deliberate choices by questioning AI models.

8AI is never the starting point

Gain focus by working in a data-driven way and asking: what problem do I want to solve, which decisions can be supported by data? This may uncover both opportunities and challenges, and provide momentum for transformation and innovation. This is your starting point for successful AI implementation.

👉 Actie: Start with the human problem you want to solve, not with the AI tool you use. Always keep the customer in mind. Technology is never the goal, but a means to an end.

9Balance conflicting priorities like innovation and governance

Leadership today means balancing opposing priorities such as fast innovation and strong governance. The same applies to AI: is the human or the AI in control? At the same time, AI offers organizations the ability to connect opposites, such as automation and human interaction (high tech vs. high touch). For example, AI can handle routine, data-intensive tasks, allowing people to focus on empathy, creativity, and trust.

👉 Actie: Define clear boundaries (ethics, compliance, data privacy) and give teams the freedom to move quickly within them. Actively seek valuable collaboration between humans and AI.

10The potential of AI lies in redefining value creation

The power of AI lies in reshaping business models, processes, and value creation.

👉 Actie: Use AI to reinvent your business, not just to optimize the past. However, generative AI is based on existing data, so real innovation always requires collaboration between humans and AI.

11Build a data-centric operating model

Sustaining the added value of data and AI for your organization lies in your operating model.

👉 Actie: Consolidate your data into a single source of truth. Design your operating model around it and use AI to continuously learn, adapt, and support all possible business models from an adaptive operating model.

Data, AI, and culture go hand in hand:

AI without data is fiction; data without structure has little value.

Governance, accessibility, and data quality are prerequisites.

The ROI of AI depends more on data maturity than on technology.

AI requires a holistic and strategic approach: ethical, organizational, and governance issues around AI must be discussed early in the boardroom.

Innovation with data and AI equals both a cultural and a digital transformation.

Key learnings (video)

You can also revisit the avatar of Fons Trompenaars, who summarizes the key learnings from the panel discussion. Click here to watch the video.

What did we focus on during the session?

During the expert session, we went beyond technology and focused together on: vision, strategy, and AI use cases, hybrid intelligence and AI as a work partner, human trust and conscious adoption with insight into AI models, AI factories and innovation power, and data-centricity as a source of digital transformation.

Many thanks to all contributing experts

Fons Trompenaars

Bestselling author, Thinkers50, digital visionary

Cynthia Liem

Associate Professor, TU Delft

Koen van den Berg

AI Factory Lead EMEA, NVIDIA

Ken van Ierlant

CEO, Mr. Data, author Data Value Creation

Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen

Supervisory Board Member Siemens Netherlands and MN, Chair Advisory Board SER Top Women, Former Chair Aon Netherlands Holding

Daniel Gebler

Founder & CTO, Picnic Technologies

Annemarie Peijnenborgh

Head of Business Intelligence & Data, JBT Marel

Robert Rooderkerk

Associate Professor of Operations Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University

Dénelise L’Ecluse

Former MD BSI Europe, Chair @AI4All

And of course, a heartfelt thank you to all attending executives and leaders. Together, we create this unique setting, where you can openly engage with peers from diverse industries, dive deeper into relevant strategic choices around AI and digital transformation, and share insights that can be directly applied within your own organization.

Would you like to schedule a personal conversation? Please send an email to Caroline Holtgrefe, Chief Community Officer, at holtgrefe@rsm.nl.